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Monday, January 17, 2011

The inevitable "vaccines and autism" post...

I can't imagine the heartache of finding out your child has a severe developmental disorder, especially a spectrum disorder, such as autism. And, thinking back to the early months of my son's life, and how I worried (and still do) about his development and overall health, I can understand wanting to do everything within your power to prevent your child from suffering a debilitating disability.

So it is with all due sympathy that I make the following statement: Trusting Jenny McCarthy for medical advice is like asking Snooki to do your taxes.

Yes, Jenny McCarthy is a mom, so she probably has opinions on the field of pediatrics. Snooki also spends money, so she probably (maybe) understands that such a thing as the IRS exists (again, maybe). However, McCarthy's anti-vaccination crusade is more dangerous and irresponsible than if Snooki went on Oprah to promote a book advising young women to invest all their money in jars of dill pickles.

But that's not just my opinion. That's the statement coming from a few someones known as every reasonable member of the medical community. The most disturbing quote on the matter? A recently published doctor referring to the fraudulent study which first (and, was alone in) proposed the alleged vaccine/autism link: "That paper killed children."

And that is what's heartbreaking about the whole issue. Misinformation caused loving mothers fearing something horrible to do something even worse. And there is your tragedy. Babies died from completely preventable diseases because their mothers feared something that, at least not yet, cannot be prevented, but can be treated, and lived with.